My life started at the age of five, this was the time I attended my first ever match… and what a day. As soon I entered Maine Road with my dad on that cold windy day I was hooked. By now the result and apposition may no longer be a memory of mine, but that day I sat opposite the Kippax and I felt the buzz as they released their mighty roar and that will never be forgotten that noise that feeling will be with me all my life.

Three years ago my father died, this meant that I was unable to attend matches anymore, I was left fatherless and in some sense homeless. But now that I’m older I get the train into Manchester and attend every game without fault. When I sit there watching my beloved team I know my dad would be proud.

So was that first game the day I became a city fan? No, because as my dad once told me “you don’t choose to be city fan you’re born a city fan”. And I for one was born a blue.

Thomas Szalk (age 15)